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Girl · Uncertain (Iberian)
Teresa
Say it: teh-REH-zah
Meaning
Of uncertain origin; it first appears in Spain and Portugal, and proposed links to Greek therizein 'to harvest' are not proven.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Used in León and Portugal from the 10th century; Teresa of Ávila's fame in the 16th century spread it across Catholic Europe.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1960s
In the United States
- 415,576 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1962, about 1 in 106 girls
- 362 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
ItalianSpanishPortuguesePolishCatalanMexicanCentral AmericanAndeanArgentineCaribbeanBrazilian
The family of the name
Other spellings: Tere, Teresita
| English | Theresa |
|---|---|
| French | Thérèse |
| German | Theresia |
| Catalan | Teresa |
| Portuguese | Teresa |
| Italian | Teresa |
Famous bearers
- Teresa of Ávila, mystic and Doctor of the Church
- Teresa of León, countess of Portugal and mother of Afonso Henriques
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Calendars of saints and name days
- Parish baptism registers
- Royal and noble genealogies
- Medieval Spanish and Portuguese chronicles and charters
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.